Falling Apart
I don’t know if Dirty Harry is hurt or just gassed or maybe he’s just not very good. Either way, shut him down. And at the end of the season, hopefully, Farhan gets shut down, too. Six years is enough. I know Giants ownership doesn’t care one way or the other. So if that’s the case, they shouldn’t mind shit canning him. Who knows, maybe they get lucky with the next guy.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Zaidi is GONE . . . maybe
https://x.com/bosummers28/status/1831141410373779889/photo/1
Also cracking up, i.e., read the small print – Longoria liked this post. HAHAHA . . .
Bats made it interesting to the end, but pitching like game before did them in. Giants have scored 2 more runs than Braves this season, but given up 87 more of them while pitching at home in much less friendly yard than where ATL plays. Said all along I didn’t think Harrison or Birds would make it to let alone through September. He said he wants to make couple more starts; not sure that’s great idea, but with 23 games left (4 times through 5 man rotation) who is available?
Biggest lesson of 2024 is you cannot have enough pitching. Hitters outdid DBax guys and lit up their pen. Matos, good lord. That one AB in 8th he struck out on 3 pitches, taking 2 strikes he saw and swinging at pitch in the dirt.
Meanwhile, across the Bay Bridge A’s walked off M’s for second game in a row in front of 3900. M’s have lost 4 in a row and are now game under .500, 6.5 behind Stros and 5.5 behind Royals for last WC. So much for firing the manager, now 5-6.
This is for Zumie . . . https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/16/sport/video/wnba-season-games-caitlin-clark-digvid
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2023/08/26/equal-pay-professional-sports-tennis-contd-orig-ht-zt.cnn
Another interesting video for Zum and anyone else interested in the unequal pay situation with women and men.
Hopefully Z is gone.
Game was fun at the end, but imagine if we had actually made the playoffs and then lost a bunch of games when we had RISP and couldn’t make any contact. Last night even at the end, if we had lost on a deep drive or a lineout would have been ok. I came to realize how often I am rooting for a hit and not only don’t get it, but how amazingly often we K or hit a weak easy to field grounder. SOO annoying.
This is the problem with the team in general. They all want to hit the bomb. Sure, it’s league-wide, but we don’t hit homers. Encarnacion is the only guy I’ve seen who routinely goes the other way on outside pitches and is not simply rolling over and trying to pull outside pitches every goddamn time.
Like baserunning, knowing where and when to hit the cutoff man, putting bunts down, putting the ball in play (aaarrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!), calling off on flyballs, this team just has no fundamentals whatsoever.
Nothing has changed in the 6 years of Farhan. And he got a do-over before this year. Unreal.
The great aberration of 2021 got plunked in the middle of Z’s tenure and probably did more harm than good…
Who knew the bore core would rise up as one for the last hurrah? I sure didn’t.
Best season in team history? Nuts. That and $5.00 got them booted in the first round.
And some unexpected help…
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/SFG/2021.shtml
Yes it did Loo, per 11:05. BC had benefit of reduced playing time in 2020 60 game season and Posey sat it out entirely. Hence they were all better rested, though both Longo and Belt still missed time with injuries. Giants had 10 guys in double digit HRs, including part timers Slater Flores Ruf and Dickerson, plus Solano’s line drive bat. They led NL in slugging and OPS, were second in runs hits BBs and BA and Late Nite was born.
Problems soon followed, as Posey retired, McGee was done along with DeSclafani and Gausman from rotation that helped lead team to second best NL for ERA. So many others couldn’t duplicate what happened that magical year, including Kap and his coaching staff.
Thanks for the videos, Blade! As much as I wanted to see Clark be on the Olympic squad, she and her team clearly benefitted from the month away from games. They got rest, but also more practice time together, and are really playing well as a unit, both on offense and defense.
I saw a pundit the other day talking about Clark as an MVP candidate. He wasn’t saying she would win this year, or deserved to win, BUT if the MVP award was given to the actual most VALUABLE player in the league, it would be Clark. She has brought exponentially more viewers and revenue to the WNBA. Game analyst Nancy Lieberman said it well the other day: the league had been praying for decades for this to happen. Clark has been a total gift dropped into the league out of nowhere (Iowa.) Sorry Iowa, for the slight. (grin)
The Fever have clinched a playoff spot for the first time in 8 years. And her team is currently ahead of Taurasi’s team in the standings, which is, come on, kind of amusing.
This is a three minute Fever highlight video from their recent game vs. the Dallas Wings. The second basket in the video is incredibly cool and will cause someone to love basketball again if their love for the sport has faded a bit. The whole three minutes captures the excitement that Clark and the Fever have brought to the WNBA. Admittedly, the Wings are one of the worst teams in the league, but still!
The Wings are playing much better now than they were earlier in the season. They got some players back that were injured, so they’re a tougher opponent now.
The champion this year will be NY, Las Vegas, Connecticut, or Minnesota. Those are the teams in their prime. The Fever are the youngest team in the league.
I guess it’s fair to say I’m pretty tuned out of the ’24 Giants now. I still have the games on, but tend to be reading during the games. We’re at the stage of this type of season where Kruk and Kuip are talking about the players being professionals and giving the fans full effort in the remaining games. I imagine the players are already getting their off-season travel plans in order.
I flicked past the NFL network the other day and they had last year’s Super Bowl playing. All the mental blockage I had done was sifted away in a moment. There it was, a 10-0 lead with a few minutes left in the first half. A botched punt return would be forthcoming so I quickly changed the channel.
It’s better to get to a championship and lose, than not to get to the championship; so it’s onward and onward. A new season, always another new chance! The eternal wheel of sports turning. Probably the first humans played games, kept score, and felt angst over losses, perhaps 200,000 years ago, according to scientists.
Other than watching the Giants, I can barely watch any of the other major sports. Mostly because of rule changes, e.g., NFL favors the offense significantly, basketball emphasizes the 3 pointer and hands off defense, etc. Frankly, I am having a lot of difficulty watching the Giants too . . . Seriously, who in the hell thought up the “ghost runner?” Same deal with manufacturing the bases bigger. Lastly, interleague play, DH, and emphasis on pitching specialists (due to increased pitcher roster sizes) have ruined the game for me. There was nothing better than reading the Sunday morning paper and going through all the MLB player statistics. Pfffttt! They don’t mean jack shit anymore. My childhood buddies and I would argue endlessly about who was the better all around player, base stealer, pitcher, relief pitcher, etc. That’s history just like the kids that use to play at our playground . . . I never see kids at the park near where I grew up in Sunnyvale. All of them are in their rooms on Instagram or some shit.
Listen carefully Zum, it is ALL DUE TO MONEY. I still love sports, particularly boxing and UFC, but just about everything else is tainted by money. Related to your love of the WNBA, I have already watched a couple of games this season and I like it. Why? Again, it is due to the fact that money hasn’t already ruined the sport. I plan on watching more of it too. End of rant . . .
I would rather watch Women’s college softball than the Giants right now.
The weak link this season is Melvin and Price. Huge drop off from Bailey and to a lesser extent Kapler.
Farhan is NOT the decider on anything other than the call-ups, options, 26 man roster manipulation which he’s actually quite good at.
They’re unlikely to fire him or Melvin, but Price is a goner. Maybe give Farhan another title and appoint a better front man.
Bailey’s pitchers on Red Sox aren’t doing much better than last year. I doubt Sean Manaea misses him or Kap very much for how he got yanked around and he’s doing great with Mets. Same goes for Rays Zack Littell who had run in with Kap after he got yanked 2 years ago. Now he’s knocked full run off ERA down to just above 4.00 and has made 25 starts already. Giants could sure use guy like that right now. Last 5 starts he’s given up 7 runs in 26 innings, still going strong.
Kapler was never better than .500 guy in every year he managed before and after 2021. His teams fell apart in second half, and Bailey couldn’t help stop that slide either. give them credit for 2021 fine but 2022 Giants pitching gave up 100 more runs, and even more the next year.
I told blade the other day that I actually hope the Giants crater this last month so that the pressure is heavy to dump Farhan. I don’t think that is being a bad fan. This organization is adrift, major changes are needed, again. Since ownership won’t change, the FO is where it’s at…
Not irrefutable evidence (because it was a Tuesday night game), but it seems like the fans are staying home. It will be interesting to see what happens to attendance when San Diego visits on September 13th-15th. I truly believe (hope???) that fans stay away, whereby pressure is put on Giants ownership to shit can Zaidi’s ass back to the Philippines.
I don’t mind if they fire Zaidi, I didn’t like his hire in the 1st place.
I think Kim Ng would be a great replacement. Also, in-house I like Jeremy Shelly. Since 94 Shelly worked his way up the ladder from a baseball operations intern to Senior VP and Assistant General Manager. Bump Shelly up to GM under Ng and I bet we turn it around.
Well, that is basically the same process of moving the players around.
The buck stops with the 30 owners. They have flat-out stated that they don’t care for much but the real estate around the stadium.
Ng would be a great hire, a PR extravaganza, but she would be under the same constraints as Farhan and even Sabevans. The purse strings are under tight control.
Last season was a perfect example. They spent a ton, but 2/3 of it will go away when the season ends.
I’ve been a big supporter of Kim Ng she got the Marlins in the playoffs adding key contributors to get in as a W/C team and Dumbshit Marlins wanted to reorganize their whole FO and she said Stick it and she was right to leave.
If the Giants were smart which they aren’t they could of hired Ng last year and she could of possibly brought in Steven Vogt , sure he was green but he’s not to far removed from the game and has players respect throughout the league! And guess what he immediately turned the Guardians around after Francona’s last year 10 games under at 76-86.Certainly the Guardian are better then the Giants but you still have to get it done on the field and his team is doing that, a first place team!
Also I wished Hitting Coach Donnie Ecker never left.In the fluke 2021 season he had most of the hitters selectivity swinging at good pitches, not like clueless Pat Burrell who needs to be fired along with Farhan( Morocco Mole) and Melvin I can’t stand his stupor look in the dugout are his postgame nonsense of how this game gotta away from us! Such a washed up moron Manager..And what about Pete Putila shouldn’t he be on the hot seat as well??
Also throw in Melvin’s lackey pitching coach Brian Price a definite downgrade from Bailey imo..
I like Ng too. In fact, I suggested Ng during the first go around (but Zaidi got the job).
Frankly, no one else out there excites me. Consequently, I seriously would not mind Sabean coming back if they do not pursue Ng. Better the devil you know . . . and all that.
Regardless, of whom they hire – I also subscribe to the belief that Unca has – Specifically, Greg Johnson could care less about baseball, except, he wants to make money in it or at least, come out even. His priority is real estate and other equity fund investments he oversees. The Giants are just part of “assets and liabilities” – another line item on his company’s balance sheet.
Birdsong not having a good start.
That ‘best rotation in the league’ comment is aging like fine . . . turds. They are now swirling down the chute.
Weeeee! Shut them all down. Sign Crawfish to pitch.
Miller says a “regular” 1B handles that throw…
If Birdsong doesn’t get better by the close of this season, dollars to donuts, it’s sayonara for him (insofar as this organization). A 5 plus ERA, coupled with a WHIP of 1.4 something is not cutting it.
WTF is Gallen afraid of?
Last inning for Birdsong. Too many pitches and ineffective as fuck.
3 walks and even Casali got to a full count before checking his swing on ball 4 and a run highlight of the night as 2 more RISP die on the bases..
So what’s the deal with Chapman? Giving the Ironman a night off for Wisely lol white flag Melvin at it again.. And the steals keep on automatically coming..
The steal success rate for the opposition this year must be off the charts…
Yeah Blade the luster has worn out on Birdsong, but he’s still very young and moved up the farms fast, I’m not giving up on him yet, obviously he needs to get his control in check, plus way to many walks and bombs, but his FB,Changeup/Curve are effective it’s just being patient on the fly with him.They trade him and you know he could turn into a star with another club..
Just frustrated and my venom probably should be directed at Melvin and his inept coaching staff. So tired of seeing the same ol’ same ol’ for the last 6 years. Team is a better sleep aid than melatonin.
I think the Giants “collective” brain trust has logged out due to inactivity. Pfffttt!
Yaz with a great 12 pitch AB to garner a walk,
Then, Matos swings at the very next pitch, a curve, into a DP. WTF — is anybody coaching this kid in situational hitting? …
Ramos batted after Yaz, but yeah, I wish he would’ve worked the pitch count on that.
It was Ramos with bat in his hands.
Even worse, then…
Wade in the water…
A pulse!
Biom! That had to feel good for Wade Jr
Might as well make it 2 no hitters today as the Giants can easily roll over for a Dback no no..
Gallen may not finish but their pen should easily finish it off..
Hey no problem Blade I’m right there with you about this freaking coaching staff and I wish they don’t even show Melvin’s dumbshit face anymore in the dugout
Wow my post must of lit a fire somehow! Fitz breaks up the no hitter and Late night Lamont does his Wade in the Water special Deep Purple month!!
Nice play Doval (not).
Gawd is Doval just coconut mush for brains always?
Lets Pavin Smith get 7 steps to 2nd for a walk-in steal, so much on working on tha at Sac, to much beyond him to do thatThen wtf was he doing on Corbin’s chopper that was going to go foul? But know let me fuck up that play for an extra run..
. . . and Matos AKA Ramos SO again. lqtm
Lulz …
Somebody help Late Nite drive in some more runs.
Whatever Fitz is eating, give some to the rest of the squad. He’s the only guy consistently getting hits…
Snarkk or Willie, doesn’t it seem like many of our wins are derived by our pitching taking the lead? What I mean is that it seems lately – that the pitching has been breaking down and by the time that occurs, our hitters are too ill-equiped to fight back? Just seems like our team is not a “come from behind” type squad. Consquently, they need the confidence of the starters pitching almost lights out in the first 4-5 innings.
Anyone chime in.
That was certainly Z’s hope for August and September, that “the best rotation in baseball” would get the job done and they wouldn’t need to come from behind. Hasn’t worked out so well…
6-year contract for Chappie?
https://x.com/pavlovicnbcs/status/1831563449404682427?s=46&t=k0FDC_rVBvlG86Y-OHTiNQ
Looks official. I wanted them to re-sign him, didn’t think it would be 6 years, but I guess that’s what it took…
I’ll buy some tickets to watch Chapman and Lee play D. But the deal suggests what’s really going on. Melvin and Williams et al will be here for a while, eg.
Whoa! Any details on that 6 year deal? Not certain I am for it. Too tired though to explain. G’nite all . . . Xoot, good to see you here!